Struggling with this mat leave issue and hoping the viper hivemind can help me work out how to deal with it! Apologies for the length but didn't want to leave out any relevant factors!
I started a new job 18 months ago. I took it in a bit of a hurry as I wasn't planning to leave my old job, which I loved, but found I was completely side-lined (to the point of not being given any work) after returning from my first mat leave, despite things going really well before I took the leave. I had to get out relatively quickly as I knew I wanted a second DC and would need to be in any new job for a year before qualifying for enhanced mat leave.
I told the recruiter from the very start (and kept repeating) that I needed to see the mat leave policy ASAP as I'm the main breadwinner but he kept fobbing me off and in the end I didn't get to see it until after they had offered me the role (after a gruelling 4 round process, which included me staying up until 1am the night before having all of our family round for DC1's first birthday, preparing a presentation), so obviously I was already quite invested by that point.
The policy is terrible. I was really upset with the recruiter and made it clear to him I would never have even interviewed for the role if I'd seen the policy first, as we need the money, but by this point I was very invested and felt rushed as I had interviewed for a couple of other roles which didn't feel right at all. Despite the policy, I really got on with my now boss, the work was a step up and there was a small pay increase. I even raised my concern with my new boss before accepting the role and he told me that the company realised the policy was terrible and were in the process of updating it, so it should be fine by the time I would need to qualify for it.
Fast forward 18 months, the job has been good but I'm now pregnant and of course the policy has not been updated, leaving DH and I in a very stressful situation. It was true that HR were updating it and I was following its progress as part of the Women's Network, so I was as sure as possible it would be updated this summer, but the Board just hasn't approved the new version and it won't be done in time for me, if at all in the near future. We are talking about a big, successful FTSE 100 company here, not some small, struggling start-up or similar, so there is no excuse for it, it's just not a priority so not being done. I know I took a risk when taking on the role but am honestly just so, so disappointed that nothing has improved in 18 months. I also couldn't time my pregnancy perfectly - if it had taken us 6 months or longer to conceive then we would have been ok financially as they have a 2 year enhanced policy which, while not great, is acceptable. However we were lucky to fall pregnant first time, which of course you can't count on so need to leave a bit of wiggle room and age is not on my side.
My heart says to just completely check out of the company now - they've really screwed us over as a family so why should I care about them? Just work to rule until I go on leave, then go part time and work to rule when I return until I feel ready to apply to move somewhere new. My head says: the job is otherwise good, working to rule would mainly punish my boss and my team, who are in no way to blame for this, I should play the long game as this will be my last mat leave so I won't be affected by the policy after this. Yet another part of me thinks I should fight for an improvement for the next couple of months - speak to anyone I can on the Board and make it clear I'm unhappy, in the hope this will spur them to approve the new policy in time for it to benefit me? But I'm not very senior in the corporate hierarchy (have only spoken to one person on the Board previously) and worried that this could go wrong for me and I'll be frozen out before I'm ready to leave, which would create a bad atmosphere and cause stress around my mat leave, which would be horrible.
Don't really know where to go from here :-( Please nobody respond telling me I'm lucky to get mat leave at all, lucky to have a job at all, etc. that's all the bare minimum we should be expecting - I'm a highly skilled professional and know my worth to the company (as does my boss and his boss). Just looking for a fair package for women in 2024 from a large, successful company, but apparently that's still too much to ask for...